I remember when I was a kid everybody wanted to get home as fast as we could so we could watch the series Dark Shadows. It was a "soap opera" type series. The acting was awful but it had a vampire, a werewolf and various other creatures so we loved it.

I just rented the new movie with Johny Depp. It was hilarious. The actors were all playing their parts badly just like in the original series. They bring you up to speed on who everybody is as they are introduced. But I don't know if someone who didn't watch the series would get a lot of the subtle humor poked at how the show was originally presented. We all took it very seriously when I was a kid. The series ran from 1966 to 1971.

This is the first comedy I have seen in a long time that I would actually go out and buy.

Has anybody seen this movie? A couple of weeks ago I was looking through Red Box and saw it. I know it didn't get very good reviews but it looked like a fun watch while drinking home brews so I dropped a buck and a half and brought it home.

I was very surprised. I thought it was actually very well done. Superb special effects, good story, great action. And even featured a bunch of WWII Navy Vets.

I liked it because the Aliens weren't insurmountable foes. Their weapons weren't that far advanced over ours.

So I went to our local Family Video tonight to see if they had any used copies. They wanted $12.95 for used blu rays. I did some quick shopping on my phone and discovered Best Buy has brand new ones for $19.99. For $7 more I went that route.

I figure going to the theater I would drop $12 on admission, then if I wanted any snacks they would really gouge me. At home I can drink beer while watching, pause the movie if I have to go to the bathroom, I don't have annoying people around me, and I don't have to worry about getting bed bugs from the theater seat And I get to watch the movie as many times as I want.

I just did a porter yesterday. I wanted to use black patent for the roasty flavor. I accidentally used black roasted barley instead. I keep reading that black roasted barley imparts more of a coffee flavor where black patent imparts a good roasty flavor. I went ahead and threw that in too. We shall see how it comes out. My recipe was the following:

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (0.80gal, 2.98gal) of 168.0 F waterNotes:------I accidentally added black roasted barley instead of black patent. After much thought I decided to add my black patent as well. I really wanted a roasty tasting porter. As a result this porter is too dark for the style. Fortunately I am not entering it in a contest so if it tastes good I will be happy.

I recently bought a pound of Willimette pellet hops from someone called Yakimavalleyhops on ebay. They were asking $7.99 plus another $5 for shipping. This works out to 81 cents an ounce which I was happy with. It was a buy it now thing. I put in my order on 9/26 and they were in my mailbox on 9/28.

I generally like US Fuggles in my red ales but I thought Willimette would be a good substitute.

When I got divorced in 03 I took on 13 grand in debt. I took two of those 0% credit card offers. Back then they only went 6 months. So 5 months in I took two more cards. 5 months later they were offering a year 0% and I had one of my cards paid off. So I transferred the other one to the new 0% promotional offer. 11 months later I transferred to yet another 0% offer. Eventually all of that debt was paid off. No interest just occasional transfer fees. I then cancelled all of my cards but one. Now I put my gas and incidentals on that card and pay it off every two weeks. I pay no interest but get rewards from it. I recently used those rewards to pay for a copy of beersmith. I love getting over on credit card companies.

I don't think I would risk the money on one of these. From the site you pointed to:

PLEASE READ: We know that these burners are hard to find, and when you do find them they are anywhere from $100.00 - $500.00. We found these burners and brought them in because we have had so many customers request them. HOWEVER, please note that these are NOT Bayou Classic burners. They are bought directly from China. We do not have the human resources to hook up and try each burner before shipping. The result is the cheaper price. STARTING 07/27/11, WE WILL NOT ACCEPT RETURNS ON THESE BURNERS OR ISSUE CREDITS. They are shipped AS IS. Each burner will be individually wrapped prior to shipping. Please have some type of knowledge about these burners prior to purchase. If you have experience with them, they are worth the price. If you do not have experience with building outdoor burners, then please stick with our PROPANE CAST IRON BURNERS. Thank you for your understanding

Right now they are on sale for $62. That is a lot of money to spend on something untested and nonrefundable.

Something I hadn't thought about, I wonder if NB has lowered some prices to offset the shipping.

Also NB never gave me the flat rate shipping on 50 pound sacks of grain. Typically my two row has been cheaper through midwest after price and shipping.

I still like that I can use paypal through midwest and I like that morebeer saves my payment information so I don't have to fill it out everytime I order. NB does neither and that makes it a pain to order from my phone.

The only advantage I ever saw in NB over midwest supplies was the flat rate shipping. Now I prefer midwest because they use paypal. I do stock up on my grain through morebeer for the free shipping over $59 though.

I did the free trial and so far thought it looked a lot nicer, but as far as the functions, I felt Brewtarget had all but the timer. I did find Beersmith more complicated to use but I don't know if that was because I just wasn't used to it. So far I don't see any differences that are worth $27.95 but I could possibly be missing something. Which is why I asked the question.